This has been a slightly frustrating wait - I have wanted to write to you about this for a few weeks but have been asked (for good reason) to hold my fire … but now - I can so: 

WELCOME to the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme - and learn why we NEED YOU!

Since 2011 the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People’s Trust for Endangered Species have been working together to help hedgehogs. A large part of this is the Hedgehog Street campaign. But we have also been investing heavily in research as well.

We know how the population of hedgehogs in the UK has changed over time - with some degree of robustness since the year 2000. We publish the State of Britain’s Hedgehogs report every three or so years - and the picture is clear. Urban hedgehogs have decline by around 25% since we started monitoring, rural hogs down between 30-75%.

What we do not know is how many hedgehogs there are!

I do many interviews and am often asked (photo for this update was taken when I was on Channel 5 News talking about this project ... I think I had just made the presenter nervous!) … but all we can do is refer to some very rough figures which in some instances are little more than educated guesses. For example - the idea that there were 32 million hedgehogs in the UK in the 1950s is based on a summer evening walk done by a zoologist around Kew Gardens. He counted what he saw and then scaled up! Now, his figure could be right, but we can’t ever know.

It would be very useful to know how many hedgehogs there are. Especially in particular areas - to give us a clearer insight into what might be the drivers of change.

To obtain a good estimate was, for a long time, thought near impossible. The number of people involved would be prohibitively expensive. And then came along the Random Encounter Method for population estimation …

I first heard it being talked about at the European Hedgehog Research Group meeting that took place in London, February 2019. At this the description of the technique was given - it relies on a grid of trail cameras - motion sensitive - all set out in a very particular way such that the images received can be used to calculate a population.

I asked how!!!! I began my hedgehog field work trying to find out how many hogs there were on North Ronaldsay. Here I marked every hog I found with a bit of paint - in a sequence of dots that meant each was individual. The technique is called Mark, Release, Recapture - and basically the higher the proportion of recaptures you get suggests a higher percentage of the population has been tagged. Clever stats gives you a population estimate.

But this - no animals are marked … Professor Chris Carbone from the Institute of Zoology answered my question in a manner that has gone down in history …. ‘We analyse all the videos, and then apply a little statical jiggery-pokery and hey presto, we get the answer. ‘

I still do not understand how it works. 

So now - we are rolling the REM out across the country - thanks to the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme, and Dr Henrietta Pringle who is managing this mammoth task. And - to make this work - we need you.

The reason I had been asked to wait before telling you all about this was for fear you would break the website with your enthusiasm! But now they have ironed out the glitches - so let me tell you what we need.

Millions of video clips are coming in from the cameras. Artificial Intelligence is scanning through them to begin with - removing blank images (sometimes a blade of grass moving in the wind can trigger the camera) and people. 

But AI is not good enough to identify which other species are seen … and this is where you come in. You simply go to the website, sign up (it is all free, of course) and then - well - here is me narrating a short video of how it all works.

So - follow the links, sign up and get recording what you see. It has become really quite competitive!!! 

If you would like to learn more - join an evening event online on 7th May to hear Henrietta talk about this amazing project.

There is still no movement from this platform to reinstate the comment option, which is leaving me rather bereft. It feels like I am shouting into the wind with no one there to answer. So please - do let me know you are still getting these updates!

You can use the Hedgehog Highways Facebook Group

Or my twitter or instagram accounts.

And finally - my latest book - have a look and let me know what you think!